Jaws (1975)
Average Rating: 9/10
Reviews Counted: 62
Fresh: 61 | Rotten: 1
Compelling, well-crafted storytelling and a judicious sense of terror ensure Steven Spielberg's Jaws has remained a benchmark in the art of delivering modern blockbuster thrills.
Average Rating: 7.9/10
Critic Reviews: 13
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 1
Compelling, well-crafted storytelling and a judicious sense of terror ensure Steven Spielberg's Jaws has remained a benchmark in the art of delivering modern blockbuster thrills.
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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 931,674
Movie Info
Based on Peter Benchley's best-selling novel, Steven Spielberg's 1975 shark saga set the standard for the New Hollywood popcorn blockbuster while frightening millions of moviegoers out of the water. One early summer night on fictional Atlantic resort Amity Island, Chrissie decides to take a moonlight skinny dip while her friends party on the beach. Yanked suddenly below the ocean surface, she never returns. When pieces of her wash ashore, Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) suspects the worst, but
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Cast
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Roy Scheider
Chief Martin Brody -
Robert Shaw
Quint -
Richard Dreyfuss
Matt Hooper -
Lorraine Gary
Ellen Brody -
Murray Hamilton
Mayor Larry Vaughn -
Carl Gottlieb
Editor Meadows -
Jeffrey Kramer
Policeman Hendricks -
Susan Backlinie
Chrissie Watkins -
Jonathan Filley
Cassidy -
Ted Grossman
Estuary Victim -
Lee Fierro
Mrs. Kintner -
Jeffrey Voorhees
Alex Kintner -
Craig Kingsbury
Ben Gardner -
Dr. Robert Nevin
Medical Examiner -
Peter Benchley
Interviewer -
Jay Mello
Sean Brody -
Chris Rebello
Michael Brody -
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Jaws Trailer & Photos
All Critics (62) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (61) | Rotten (1) | DVD (65)
It may be the most cheerfully perverse scare movie ever made. Even while you're convulsed with laughter you're still apprehensive, because the editing rhythms are very tricky, and the shock images loom up huge, right on top of you.
Top CriticThe result is a fast-paced, straight-line thriller that moves without pause toward the climactic contest at sea between three men and a 25-foot, 3-ton great while killer shark.
It is a coarse-grained and exploitive work which depends on excess for its impact. Ashore it is a bore, awkwardly staged and lumpily written.
What this movie is about, and where it succeeds best, is the primordial level of fear.
A near Hitchcockian exercise in transference of guilt and making the audience pay for its illicit pleasures.
Spielberg may be the man who created the new Hollywood, but in his first megahit he summed up what was best in the old -- the humor, the perversity, and the storytelling integrity of Alfred Hitchcock.
Quite simply, Jaws is a masterclass in blockbuster entertainment -- a tense, exciting thriller that redefined contemporary cinema. They don't make them like this anymore.
John Williams's Oscar-winning music and the excellent performances of Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss add to the ingeniously mounted tension that cleverly plays on all our deepest primeval fears.
Jaws remains, decades later, a near perfect film.
Basically, Jaws is an excellent routine movie, the sort normally made on a moderate budget and aimed at the neighborhood houses.
Spielberg knows exactly how the human mind works, and he uses that knowledge to plumb the elemental fear buried deep within.
...the movie's justifiably legendary opening [paves] the way for an engrossing first act that's heightened by both Scheider's magnetic performance and the inclusion of several unbearably tense interludes.
Spielberg fashioned an instant classic whose success owes as much to his superb orchestration as to the substantial jolts and knockout performances by Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss.
Before we see anything, our ears are chilled by composer John Williams' menacing two note soundtrack which then builds into that unforgettable frenzy as the unseen shark savages its first victim.
Jaws retains its power to enthrall and shock at the same time.
You think of the excess that followed in Jaws' wake and realise how well judged that first blockbuster is.
It remains an influence on the modern blockbuster, and is one of its best examples.
This is a suspense classic that leaves teeth-marks.
Jaws is a perfect blend of set-pieces and story, its formula so hard to capture it's now near-mythical - filmmakers have been chasing it like Ahab chasing Moby Dick ever since.
Audience Reviews for Jaws
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Movies Like Jaws
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- Quint: Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain. For we've received orders for to sail back to Boston. And so never more shall we see you again.
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- Matt Hooper: I don't have to take this abuse much longer!
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- Quint: Well it proves one thing, Mr. Hooper. It proves that you wealthy college boys don't have the education enough to admit when you're wrong.
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- Quint: Your husband's all right, Mrs. Brody. He's fishing. He's just caught a couple of stripers. We'll bring 'em in for dinner. We won't be long, we haven't seen anything yet. Over and out.
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- Ellen Brody: Is it true that most people get attacked by sharks in three feet of water about ten feet from the beach?
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- Matt Hooper: Well, this is not a boat accident! And it wasn't any propeller; and it wasn't any coral reef; and it wasn't Jack the Ripper! It was a shark.
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Foreign Titles
- Der weiße Hai (DE)
- Jaws (UK)
